The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for aligning and supplying an electrical component for aligning an electrical component (including an electronic component) and supplying it to a position at which it is mounted on another electrical component, and is utilized, for example, in the case in which an IC (integrated circuit) chip is mounted on a liquid crystal panel with alignment marks on them being aligned with each other.
An operation of mounting a driver IC chip on a liquid crystal panel via a conducting material such as an ACF (anisotropic conducting film) is performed with alignment marks of the IC chip being aligned with alignment marks of the liquid crystal panel since the IC chip has to be mounted accurately at a predetermined position of the liquid crystal panel so that both of them have to be surely brought into a conductive state. To this end, an apparatus for mounting an IC chip on a liquid crystal panel is provided with a CCD camera being image pick up means for picking up the alignment marks of the IC chip and the alignment marks of the liquid crystal panel at the mounting position. The IC chip is sucked by a suction head provided at the mounting device to be supplied to the aforesaid mounting position, and in order that the alignment marks of the IC chip can be surely picked up by the CCD camera having a small possible range in which an image can be picked up, the IC chip is sucked in a state in which it is properly aligned relative to the suction head, in which state, the IC chip has to be supplied to the mounting position by movement of the suction head.
FIG. 9 to FIG. 12 show a conventional method for making the suction head suck an IC chip 81 in proper alignment. The IC chip 81 is housed in a recessed portion of a container with a bump as a conductive element facing upward, that is, in a face-up state. A suction arm not illustrated sucks the IC chip 81, and thereafter the IC chip 81 is mounted on a pre-alignment stage 82 with the suction arm as it is (FIG. 9). A pushing member 83 is disposed with a smaller space than the thickness of the IC chip 81 being provided between the pushing member 83 and the pre-alignment stage 82, and the pushing member 83 moves in two horizontal directions perpendicular to each other as shown in FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, thereby aligning the IC chip in the two horizontal directions perpendicular to each other.
The pushing member 83, which aligns the IC chip 81 with a solid line position from a two-dot line position in FIG. 12, moves in the reverse directions of the two horizontal directions perpendicular to each other to thereby retreat from the IC chip 81. The IC chip 81 is sucked by a reverse arm not illustrated, and after the arm rotates at 180 degrees in reverse and thereby the IC chip 81 is in a face-down state in which the aforesaid bump faces downward, the IC chip 81 is sucked by the suction head. The IC chip 81 in this situation is sucked by the suction head in proper alignment by the pushing action of the pushing member 83, and in the above proper alignment, the IC chip 18 is supplied to the aforesaid mounting position by movement of the suction head.
According to the above conventional method, in order that the IC chip is sucked by a suction head in proper alignment, a step is necessary, in which the IC chip is once placed on the pre-alignment stage, and this causes the disadvantage of increasing operating time. Further, the apparatus for mounting the IC chip on the liquid crystal panel has to be provided with a component and means such as a pre-alignment stage and suction arm other than the suction head, and as the result, the disadvantages of the configuration being complicated and the entire apparatus increasing in size.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for aligning and supplying an electrical component, capable of performing an operation of mounting the first electrical component such as an IC chip on the second electrical component such as a liquid crystal panel with a step using a pre-alignment stage being omitted, and thereby reducing the operating time.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for aligning and supplying an electrical component which eliminates a need of members and means related to the step using the pre-alignment stage, thereby making it possible to simplify the configuration and reduce the entire apparatus in size.
The present invention is made in view of the fact that the container housing a first electrical component such as an IC chip in a recessed portion is formed with comparatively high precision.
A method for aligning and supplying an electrical component according to the present invention is characterized by including the steps of sucking a first electrical component housed in a recessed portion of a container with a suction head, and thereafter causing relative movement between the container and the suction head, thereby causing the first electrical component to abut a wall of the recessed portion; carrying out the relative movement after abutting, and thereby displacing the first electrical component relative to the suction head and changing a suction position; and supplying the first electrical component, which is in proper alignment as a result of the change, to a mounting position at which the first electrical component is mounted on a second electrical component by movement of the suction head.
Further, an apparatus for aligning and supplying an electrical component according to the present invention is an apparatus for aligning and supplying the electrical component for aligning the first electrical component and supplying the same to a mounting position at which the first electrical component is mounted on a second electrical component, and is characterized by including a suction head for sucking the first electrical component housed in a recessed portion of a container and supplying the first electrical component to the aforesaid mounting position; and aligning drive means which moves at least one of the suction head and the container to cause the first electrical component sucked by the suction head to abut a wall of the recessed portion, and after abutting, carries out the aforesaid movement to thereby displace the suction position of the first electrical component relative to the suction head to achieve alignment of the first electrical component.
In the present invention described above, even after the first electrical component sucked by the suction head abuts the wall of the recessed portion of the container housing the first electrical component, the relative movement between the suction head and the container is further carried out, thereby causing a displacement of the first electrical component relative to the suction head, and thus the first electrical component is aligned relative to the suction head.
Consequently, according to the present invention, the step using a pre-alignment stage can be eliminated, thus making it possible to reduce operating time. Further, since the members and means related to the step with the pre-alignment stage are not needed, the configuration of the entire apparatus can be simplified and the entire apparatus can be reduced in size.
In the present invention, when the alignment of the first electrical component sucked by the suction head may be carried out in only one of the X and Y direction of the aforesaid recessed portion of which opening shape is two-dimensional in the X and Y direction perpendicular to each other of the container housing the first electrical component, for example, due to the shape or the like of the conductive element of the second electrical component on which the first electrical component is mounted, it is suitable if the aforesaid relative movement of the aforesaid method and the aforesaid aligning drive means of the aforesaid apparatus according to the present invention can carry out the alignment in one of these directions.
However, when the alignment of the first electrical component sucked by the suction head is required in both of the X and Y direction, the aforesaid relative movement of the aforesaid method and the aforesaid aligning drive means of the aforesaid apparatus according to the present invention shall be able to carry out alignment in both of the directions.
When the alignment in both of the X and Y direction is made possible, the aforesaid aligning drive means of the aforesaid apparatus according to the present invention may be the means capable of carrying out alignment in both of the X and Y direction only by the movement of the suction head or only by the movement of the container, but it is preferable that the aligning drive means has the X direction drive means for moving the suction head in the X direction, and the Y direction drive means for moving the container in the Y direction.
When the aligning drive means is configured as above, since the suction head originally has to reciprocate between the position at which the container is disposed and the aforesaid mounting position, this reciprocating means can be also used as the X direction drive means for aligning the first electrical component in the X direction just as it is. Further, a plurality of recessed portions for housing a plurality of the first electrical components are formed in the container and in order to remove the first electrical components from a plurality of recessed portions provided side by side in the Y direction, drive means for moving the container in the Y direction is needed, and thus the drive means can be also used as the Y direction drive means for aligning the first electrical component in the Y direction just as it is.
The aligning drive means, the X direction drive means, and the Y direction drive means may be means by a servo motor or by a cylinder, and it can be selected at will.
At the aforesaid mounting position, when the first electrical component is to be mounted on the second electrical component with the alignment marks provided on the first and second electrical components being aligned with each other, the aforesaid apparatus according to the present invention may be provided with image pick up means for picking up alignment marks provided respectively on the first electrical component and the second electrical component at the aforesaid mounting position, and positioning means for positioning the position of the second electrical component so that the alignment marks of the second electrical component which are picked up by the image pick up means are aligned with the alignment marks of the first electrical component.
The image pick up means may be a CCD camera, or may be an ordinary optical camera. Further, the positioning means may be a manual one using a micrometer or the like operated by an operator, or may be an automatic one using a servo motor or the like.
The present invention is applicable for mounting an arbitrary first electrical component on an arbitrary second electrical component. As for the first electrical component, for example, an IC chip, a transistor, a diode, or condenser may be applicable. As for the second component, for example, a liquid crystal panel, or rigid of flexible substrate may be applicable.
Further, in the aforesaid method according to the present invention and the aforesaid apparatus according to the present invention, the suction means of the aforesaid suction head for sucking the first electrical component may be the one by the sucking of air, and if the first electrical component is formed of a magnetic substance or has a magnetic substance, means by magnetic may be suitable.